Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter is a sea fort in Charleston, South Carolina. Its construction began in 1829, and it was named after the American Revolutionary War hero Thomas Sumter. On 26 December 1860, after South Carolina seceded from the Union, Major Robert Anderson decided to move the garrison of Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, which was still under construction, in order to avert bloodshed with the Confederate States Army. However, Confederate general P.G.T. Beauregard laid siege to the 85-strong garrison of Fort Sumter, and, on 12 April 1861, the Battle of Fort Sumter - the first battle of the American Civil War - began. For 34 hours, the Confederate batteries in Charleston harbor bombarded the fort, and Major Anderson was ultimately forced to surrender. Two Union soldiers - Daniel Hough and Edward Galloway - were killed in an accidental gunpowder explosion, marking the first deaths of the war. On 7 April 1863, the Union attempted to retake the fort, but their assault failed, and they besieged Charleston until the war's end in 1865. On 14 April 1865, Anderson returned to the fort to raise the Union flag himself, symbolically ending the conflict where it had begun. The fort was in ruins by the war's end, and it was used as an unmanned lighthouse station from 1876 to 1897. On 28 April 1948, it became a state park.